Unknown whereabouts: Ghotki police yet to recover missing teenage girl

Family holds responsible company official who had hired her as domestic help

SUKKUR: Ghotki police have failed to find a teenage girl who went missing from the housing compound of Fauji Fertilizer Company (FFC) last Sunday.

Seventeen-year-old Momina Shaikh used to work as a domestic help at the house of the company's security officer Colonel (retd) Munawar Zaidi. The girl reportedly went missing on April 24. Her parents came to know about it when her mother, Haseena, could not get in touch with her and was informed by the officer's wife that her daughter was not at home.

The girl's family hold her employers responsible and claimed that they are influencing investigations. However, Mirpur Mathelo police station SHO Abdul Jabbar Mahar said that they have received a copy of a Nikkahnama via courier from Karachi and it mentions Momina's name. Mahar refused, however, to share any further details of this courier.

According to Momina's father Kaloo Shaikh, the company management is trying to influence the investigations and that is why the police are not taking an interest in recovering his daughter. On the contrary, the FFC management are accusing my daughter of eloping with someone, he said.

Kaloo appealed to the chief minister and Sindh IG to order an inquiry. Mirpur Mathelo police have yet to register an FIR and Kaloo claimed they refused to do so when he approached them.

For their part, FFC media manager's assistant Shoukat Samejo told The Express Tribune that the girl's parents are trying to locate her. On Tuesday, Momina's parents and other residents of Shaikh village near Masoo Wah staged a protest and sit-in outside the FFC colony. The protesters shouted slogans against the management and the maid's employers. A heavy contingent of Mirpur Mathelo police had to intervene to end the protest.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2016.